May 2011 - May 2013

Quantum Theory of Classical Reality

Grant ID

21875

Project Leader(s)

Wojciech Zurek,Michael Zwolak

Grantee(s)

Santa Fe Institute

Grant Amount

$146,050

Funding area

Natural Sciences

Department

Natural Sciences

This project can be summarized as 'a dialogue with a quantum observer'. The conversation will revolve around three subjects: (i) the perception of 'quantum jumps'; (ii) the operational significance of probabilities; (iii) the role of redundancy of information in the emergence of our objective, classical reality. The aim of this research is to bypass the common prejudice that there is a reality 'out there' and analyze the consequences of quantum physics assuming that quantum theory is universally valid. Once this idea (consistent with all the experimental evidence to date) is accepted, one is forced to ask many questions: How will a wholly quantum being describe a Universe that is quantum right down to the core? How will the being be able to convert information gained into predictions? Does quantum physics contain seeds of the classical reality we perceive? We shall investigate these questions by analyzing the observer's records ('memory') as an open (interacting with the environment) quantum system. This work will build on the recent theory of quantum jumps based on the analysis of transfer of quantum information, on the probabilities derived from the symmetries of entanglement on the entanglement-assisted invariance ('envariance') and on the ideas that trace the emergence of objective reality in a quantum Universe to inadvertent but inevitable proliferation of information throughout the environment known as 'Quantum Darwinism'. The three subjects (i)-(iii) are the cornerstones that lead to the really big question: Is there a deep connection between 'Quantum Darwinism' and the 'run of the mill' biological Darwinism? A possible line of attack would be to model evolution within a fully quantum Universe by assigning probabilities of survival on the basis of the 'envariant' derivation of probabilities we shall investigate. We cannot promise to accomplish this within the next two years, but we do not rule out 'having a go at it' either.